Microsoft Surface Pro Carries Much Less Storage Space than Originally Advertised

Customers hoping that the Microsoft Surface Pro would provide all the storage space they desire and then some will almost certainly be disappointed to hear about this. The Surface Pro, which is designed as a complete Windows 8 tablet with a rich Microsoft ecosystem of apps and features, will apparently have much less storage space than what was promised for both the 64 GB and 128 GB versions.

Microsoft had confirmed this to several sources, including The Verge, and the Redmond, Wash. company explained that the Surface Pro will indeed allocate only 36 or 65 percent of the original storage space to end users, depending on the internal storage configuration.

The 64 GB version will have 41 GB devoted to Windows 8, recovery files and pre-installed applications, leaving only 23 GB for owners to make use of. The 128 GB version will allocate 45 GB to the above files, so that would leave 83 GB of space to use to store any applicable personal files. Microsoft had posted its own disclaimer on its webpage for the Surface Pro, and it says clearly on there that “System software uses significant storage space.”

This isn’t the first time Microsoft has had issues with the Surface tablets’ storage, as the earlier Surface RT only provided 16 and 45 GB respectively to users for the 32 GB and 64 GB editions. Likewise, users would have several ways to expand the available storage, such as storing the recovery partition files on a bootable USB and deleting the original partition, or using the tablet’s USB 3.0 and microSDXC support to connect compatible storage devices.